


In the arms of Death.

by Fire_Walker



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-14 09:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4560141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Walker/pseuds/Fire_Walker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Eren and Levi is told years later when archaeologists search through the chaos which the war left behind to uncover answers. Turns out the archaeologists found a vein of gold in terms of history, and emotions.<br/>Maybe what they found should have stayed buried under the rubble together with the embracing corpses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. History

It was a scorching August that year. Me and my crew of archeologists, desperate to finally find something, were out in New York under the pressure of the suffocating heat. We were trying to dig up something in the ruins of what used to be Manhattan years and years ago before war sparked and devoured almost the entire state. I really hated this place, everything was dead silent except for the whistling wind and the stones rolling behind your footsteps. However, it’s not just the sheer fear of shadows and the death hidden underneath all these ruins that made me remember everything so vividly that week, it was the story which we discovered there and which stayed with me for the rest of my life.

 

We set up camp in a small clearing without rubble, which was most likely a park. The clearing was surrounded by literal nothing as the rubble had no purpose other than to stand sentinel over the memories of the once busy city. The tops of a few generic tents started appearing as everyone set them up in silence, too worn out by the sun.

 

We then started digging into the history of this wrecked place, or searching through the rubble, to be more precise. It wasn’t long until we found the first stash of memories, desguised as a tattered journal. 

“Dr. Dok,” One of the workers, Nanaba, called out to me accross the dig site, waving something in her hand, “We found, well... Something.”. I walked over there straight away, as fast as I could without tripping. I snatched what appeared to be a ruined journal and opened it on a random page. “Thank god,” I breathed “the ink is still clear and written in English” and then proceeded to rush away muttering a soft keep digging.

 

I sat myself down on one of the camping chairs in the shade and carefully unstuck the first page from the cover. 

“12th of August, 2014” Jesus christ.

Don’t get me wrong, we expected to find something from before the attack, because who on Earth would just come here to drop off their diaries, but if this kid continued writing for years, then we have a discovery of the year. There could be everything in this journal, from what sparked the war, life during the war, and with some major luck, even some insights into the dark secrets of the fighting governements. 

I immediately started reading, examining each page. Of course, all it was so far was just a journal of some post-teen working in some sort of cafe, but I struggled to pull my eyes away, I suppose I was just being nosy or I simply wanted to know what happened. Either way, I became so involved in the story that I could perfectly imagine every single thing in the story.

 

***

 

“Thank you and have a nice day”. Eren smiled as the lady took her order and walked off. With all the customers gone for now, he was finally able to go for his lunch break. 

He sat down in his regular seat just near the counter in case a bothersome customer decided to have food at a different time to everyone else. Assuming his usual positions with feet on the opposite chair and scrolling through an endless stream on his phone, Eren waited for the same person to visit again.

10 minutes into munching on his sandwich and the same man came in and stood at the counter.

Eren lifted himself out of the chair unwillingly to serve the man with black hair who visited every single day Eren had a shift, always disrupting his break.

“Let me guess, a large tea and toasted teacake?” Eren asked as the man pulled out exactly £4.50 from his pocket and handed it to him.

Eren smiled to himself as he put it away murmuring a quiet “Thanks”.

 

Both of them walked off to seperate tables and pecked at their food silently.

“You know, you might as well come and sit with me instead of isolating yourself with your tea in the corner.” Eren giggled to the man, who leaned on his hand, trying to look bored.

“Mhm, and why would I?”

“Because it’s better than sitting in an awkward silence, besides hardly anybody comes in on Wednesday afternoon...” Eren suggested, “...Come on, you won’t even tell me your name?”.

The man then heaved himself up and moved his tray to the table where Eren was sat. 

“It’s Levi, what about you, you spoiled brat?”

“Well I’m Eren, and I work here.” He joked.

Levi chuckled behind his mug “I didn’t ask for your biography, shitface”

Charming was all Eren could think of Levi, and Levi probably labeled him as a shitty brat in his head, but the two of them couldn’t peel their eyes off of one another. And so, their conversation about nothing went on until Eren realised he was running over his break.

“Ah crap, I don’t want to get sacked again.” he suddenly jumped up.

“You didn’t even eat your food, brat, what if I invited you for dinner on Saturday?” Levi asked, leaving Eren speechless.

“You’re not serious.”

Levi started scribbling something on the receipt “I mean you’ve been making my lunch for weeks, so I don’t see why not. I have to go now too because my own break doesn’t last too long. I’ll see you later, brat.” and with that he left.

 

Still dazed by what just happened, Eren went on to cleaning pots and was just about to throw the empty sugar packets in the bin before he realised:

Levi left him his phone number on the receipt.

Despite knowing him from one conversation, Eren felt his face turning warm at the mere thought of talking to Levi again. It was childish, and probably unprofessional, but how can you turn down such a face and free dinner. He did not know, however, that Levi saw his pink cheeks from behind the counter as he put his tray away, and gently smiled to himself.

 

***

 

Just how did he gather enough courage to text Levi and agree to meeting out with basically a stranger was a constant mystery, but he did and now he struggled to breathe whilst walking to the town centre. 

“What if he’s just some creep who has a waiter kink” he thought “that sure would explain why he comes in everyday and stares at me on my lunch break” but never did the idea that Levi thought that he was really fucking cute come into his head.

 

His speculations stopped, however, when he took one glance at Levi leaning against a pole with a white tshirt and black jeans. He was casually on his phone, typing at a great speed.

As soon as he stopped, Eren heard a ping and immediately reached for his phone.

“Brat, if you’re late I’m having both dinners.” The text nessage made him smile, maybe because it was weird to think that Levi has a sense of humour, or maybe just because it was from Levi.

“Calm down and look up fatty.” he replied in an instant. 

 

When Levi looked up and noticed Eren in his floral tshirt and jean shorts, his cheeks twitched as if he was trying really hard to keep his neutral face, which on Levi looked as if he was about to murder someone.

“So what took you so long, lost your hair brush?”

“Well I saw a dog on the way and I had to pet it but then a herd of cats came over too and I hope you understand.” Eren started his half-assed excuse. He wasn’t trying knowing that Levi was most likely kidding as well. “So, were are you taking me? Tea bag land?”

 

“Very funny,” he replied “but not quite.”.

 

***

 

They stopped at a discreet entrance to what seemed like a cozy italian restaurant. Levi opened the door for Eren to let him walk in first. A wave of delicious smells welcomed him in even before he heard music and lively chatter that reminded him of all the stereotypical rom-com scenes. All the tables were dressed in red checkered cloths to match the rest of the stereotypical italian decoarotions, to top it up, the shuttered windows were all lined with herbs which made all this smell even more intoxicating. As pleasant as it might have seemed at first, every moment in here seemed to be more and more uncomfortable to the point you could taste it in your mouth, like when you go to perfume shops. But they sat down nevertheless, at a table as far away from everyone else as possible. Of course, the tables had a basket of breadsticks and a menu with a fat chef twirling his moustache. 

 

Eren was giggling from behind his menu which immediately caught Levi’s attention, “What is it brat? The seat is too low for you?” he asked.

“No it’s just I can’t possibly imagine you coming in here. Come on, you have to tell me, who told you to take me here.”

Levi put his menu down and leaned on his arm “Tch. This place is horrible I know. I asked my co-worker for some place, because usually I hate restaurants. I don’t usually go on dates you see.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?” Eren spoke before thinking and sunk behind the menu to avoid any awkwardness, he swallowed hard as he felt himself going red again.

Although Levi pretended to ignore that comment, he too sunk behind his menu to smile to himself.

“Oi Eren,” he called out “Would you mind if we went somewhere else?”.

Eren grinned “I don’t know I started to really like this place...” he started, but Levi soon interrupted him “You can bullshit me outside come on.”.

So the two of them sneaked out hoping no one saw them complain about the place.

 

“I still can’t believe you stole a fucking bread stick.” Said Levi whilst tearing off a piece.

“They give them out for free, they won’t exactly miss it.” Mumbled Eren with his face stuffed with bread.

 

They walked through the weaving streets, their shoulders occasionlly bumping as they tried to manouver between other people walking past, but their shoulders still met even when the roads became desolate. They have finally made it to a small plaza on a river bank which was hidden between bushes and trees, and to the side stood a small shack with a few rotten chairs and tables.

“I hope you like bacon.” Eren smiled, walking towards the shack.

“I’ll eat anything, I’m hungry as fuck.” replied Levi as he went to sit down on the river bank “You sure you don’t want me to pay? We’re eating because you missed your lunch because of me.”.

“Sure.”

 

Eren soon re-appeared next to him now holding 2 bacon burgers and handed one to Levi. When they started eating there was an awkward silence as they both were too shy to say anything, but once they finished eating, Eren broke the ice.

“So tell me somehting about yourself.”.

“Well. I’m a 29 year old detective and that’s pretty much it.” Levi answered.

“A detective? That sounds interesting. I wanted to be a police man too but ended up doing chemistry and biology at uni. But I meant your interests, or what you do during your time off.” 

“Well, I like tea...” They chuckled, “beating the shit out of annoying brats, and I clean to pass time, I guess...”.

Eren blinked, “Clean to pass time?.”

“Do you want me to beat the shit out of you? What are your shitty interests then?” he sulked.

“Well. I’m 23 and just finished uni, and I work in a cafe, which you can guess. I love going outside, like sitting near ponds and shit. I don’t know why they’re just a lot better than being stuck in four walls I guess. I love reading too, especially that I have more time now without uni and stuff.” said Eren.

“Wow you sound like those aesthetic shits on Tumblr” and as Levi mumbled that Eren lost all colour on his face.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. At least tell me you’re not a fucking weeb.”.

“Well it’s not exactly like you don’t have a Tumblr. Like come on the only way you’d use those words is if you had Tumblr yourself.” Eren snapped back.

Levi sighed “Yeah ok, I do, but I swear to god if you tell anyone...” his face looked even more serious than before, if it was possible. 

After a short silence they laughed, and stood up. 

“Damn. Fellow trash.” Sighed Eren and Levi gave him a stern look.


	2. Charming but deadly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took me so long to finish. I originally planned to release it a week after the first but I couldn't find most of the work which I saved as a draft so that really put me off. Anyway, enjoy!

"...and I think that might finally give solid Nitrogen a use." paused Eren to take a breath.They were now walking back home with the looming sky above them becoming darker with every minute. The air around them was becoming cooler too so the two of them secretly inched towards each other to warm each other up.

"You fucking nerd" sighed Levi.

"I know" giggled Eren in response.

"You know, my workplace is short of staff at the moment, and I think they're looking for a forensic scientist so I can ask my commander to save an interview slot for you or something if you're not lying about your master's degree-" Levi suddenly cut off. Eren was glaring at him with disbelief in his big, blue eyes, beautiful enough for Levi to lose his track of thought, but Eren's annoying voice brought him back.

"Wait are you for real?" exclaimed Eren.

"Yeah, but you're going to have to do something in return..." Levi's voice grew deep and over-ridden with mystery, causing Eren to snap back into reality too. 

"What is it?"

"I need a slave." Levi whispered in his ear and Eren immediately jumped away, terrified at the mere thought of what Levi could mean.

"What the hell?!" Squealed Eren.

Levi chuckled but it seemed more like giggling this time. He reached out his muscular arm to help Eren up. "I was only kidding, brat. I wouldn't want you for a slave anyway." He supposedly joked.

Eren gingerly grabbed his arm for help "Thank god." he breathed "But what is it really?" Eren asked curiously.

"All you have to do in return is stop talking science to me." replied Levi, making Eren let out a single laugh. Eren squeezed Levi's hand a bit harder in return, not realising that either of them let go.

 

* * *

 

 

Levi dropped Eren off at his house gate making sure the helpless brat was safe.

"Thanks for taking me out," Eren waved at him "I had a great time!".

Levi said his goodbyes too and walked off leaving Eren annoyed with himself.

"I shouldn't have waved." Eren moaned at himself whilst fishing for keys in his pockets. What he too out instead was his phone which had a single text message on it.

"Don't forget to apply to Maria Police Station

\- LA"

Eren immediately started replying.

"You literally thought I'd forget.

Btw, I saved your number, no need to go all mysterious on my ass.

\- EJ"

As soon as he hit send, the handle twisted and Jean appeared in the doorway, making Eren almost drop his phone whilst putting it away with shaky hands.

"One date and that boyfriend of your's already sends you nudes. Pathetic." Jean mocked. 

"All right. I get it. You're jealous. Is Armin back from work yet? I have to use his computer." Said Eren.

"No, he's working a night shift today. What do you need his computer for?" asked Jean, apparently intrigued. 

Him and Eren were now walking into the living room which was over-growing with the obvious lack of Armin characterised by filthy dishes everywhere.

"I need to write a CV."

"A CV?" Jean snickered, "For what? A strip club?"

Eren gave him a stern glance, "No I'm applying at the Maria Police Station. Apparently they're looking for a forensic scientist."

"Oh don't tell me you sucked a guys dick to get that job." Jean cried with laughter.

"ALL RIGHT JEAN, LEVI IS NOT LIKE THAT." he roared, fed up of Jean's insulting jokes. Although, a thought crossed his mind. What if Levi was like that, images of Levi investigating him at work and that weird extrinsic joke he made about him being his slave. He shook the thought off, thinking maybe Levi was just as awkward as Eren and has a weird sense of humour. 

"Oh. Levi... Hmmm... Yeap, sounds like a stripper name to me." teased Jean.

"Oh fuck off, horse-face." breathed Eren, shutting the door behind himself like a teenager throwing a tantrum.

He stormed upstairs and into Armin's room where he began writing his CV. Eren began with writing out things he will include, like his skills, past work experiences. And like that, he realised this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. 

 

* * *

 

At sunrise o'clock Eren was finally done with  his CV, he printed it out, kissed it, and carefully protected it with a poly pocket. He went straight into the shower and leaned on the tiles to half-nap. He didn't even bother washing himself, instead he let the warm water wash the tired off of him. Eren soon got out to not collapse in the shower and wake Jean up by knocking all the shampoo down. After pulling on a random tshirt, he simply sunk into his bed and slipped away from the land of reality.

 

_The world Eren appeared in was devastating in it's own way. The unbearable silence which hung in the air caused a ringing in his ears. He could taste a strong metallic taste as his mouth as if it was filling up with blood. However, the scene he soon noticed around him was making him uncomfortable to the point of feeling like crying because he felt out of place. The scene presented a massive amount of generic looking people all stood around, facing one direction, and looking up at the sky. Just looking at it, and it was strangely ominous, that it sent a shiver down Eren's spine. Unaware of what was going on, he started walking through the crowd before him and tuned to a random person, whose face he could not recognise, simply because he couldn't concentrate on it, no matter how hard he tried. It's like the face was so strangely generic, it was unnoticeable. Filled with nausea, he continued but everyone was so ghost-like that being around them made him feel empty himself._

_Until he saw a man who despite his height illuminated from the crowd with detail. The man had a black haired undercut, a hand in his pocket and was now turning away to face Eren, revealing his face, worry plastered on his usual, cold, stoic face. Levi's free hand intertwined with Eren's and they both watched a submarine float through the sky only to fall in a small clearing between the tall, white buildings. From its windows, doors and any other openings, started blossoming vines, and flowers which then led to trees, bushes and any other type of plant Eren could think of which grew to cover the ghostly city and it's residents, and eventually, even Eren and Levi themselves._

 

A faint sound  ringing coming from under the pillow slowly woke Eren up. With drowsiness in his eyes, he read the smudged caller's name on his phone.

"Hey, Levi." mumbled Eren, still under pressure from his slumber.

"Hey brat" came Levi's voice from the other side. The somehow caring insult made Eren smile and think about the time he had spent yesterday with the handsome, short man.

"Listen, I talked to Erwin about the job placement. He wants it in today because he won't have any free time otherwise before choosing someone.".

Eren sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes."Yeah, okay. Thank you for doing this for me." 

"Yeah, brat, the thing is," Levi sighed "He wants it in an hour so that he can interview you straight away-"

"WHAT!" Eren jumped out of bed, finally realising he was missing the bottom half of his pyjamas. "Shit, ok, son, thanks." He threw his phone on the bed, leaving Levi laughing to himself about the situation. 

Eren rushed through the house trying to collect himself up. First was the coffee. He turned the kettle on in a half sprint and grabbed a banana for breakfast which he then ate in the shower. All this commotion woke Jean up who witnessed a half naked Eren running around the house, paranoid. 

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON DAMMIT!" bellowed Jean "You're not the only one here paying rent!" but Eren was too panicked to even care.

He quickly rummaged through his closet for his only suit, shirt, and tie combo. 20 minutes through his time and Eren was dressed up and drinking hot coffee so fast, that his throat felt like an inverse volcano. Eren grabbed his bag and double checked that it had his CV and then grabbed the last piece of chewing gum from his pocket which tasted like washing powder. 

Just as fast as lightning, he was out the doors leaving Jean behind who was as confused as ever. On his way out, Eren ran into Armin, who was returning from his night shift and the impact made him drop his bag.

"What in the world is wrong with him now." Wondered Armin, staring at his rushing room mate.

 

* * *

 

 When he got to the street the police station was on, he slowed down now being sure he's not late. He swept a hand across his messy hair to calm it down and made sure his tie was done up properly. He then proceeded to enter through the "Visitor's Entrance". The hall he walked into was a bare with a few benches, a bulletin board and a bored lady sitting at a desk stapling some papers. Eren trotted towards her.

"Um, hello." He began shyly, making the lady glance up at him with a fake smile.

"How can I help you." She asked with her smoker's voice.

"Hey, I am here for an interview for ahmm, forensic scientist." Eren rubbed his hands nervously.

"Yeah kid, the interviews ended last week," she smirked "Go back to your playground."

Eren balled up his fists, he was prepared to go full out on this lady. He was stopped however, by the clicking of shoes in the hallway. From around the corner popped out a tall and muscular man. His golden hair was slicked back and tucked behind his ears. His powerful march naturally cast discipline onto the room. The lady at the desk automatically sat up in her desk and even Eren straightened his back. The blonde man lifted his gaze from the papers to glance at Eren who was still stood at the counter. Now don't get me wrong, the man did appear to be incredibly handsome with his chiselled facial features, and perfect hair, but he was so generic he seemed unattractive to Eren, it was like he was so common that Eren saw him as just another person.

"Oh! You must be Eren." The man gave Eren a charming smile, which seemed well rehearsed. "Levi told me that you're going to come in this morning. I'm Commander Smith Please follow me." Smith's voice was warm and soft but commanding at the same time, just like Eren expected.

"Yes sir!" Eren nodded, and followed after Smith's footsteps. They weaved between offices full of policemen, investigators and people who seemed very out of place without their uniform, maybe they were just going home, or maybe no one just gave a shit in this place. 

Smith stopped at the end of an isolated hallway. It was the only place he saw so far which was lined with carpets. The very end of the hall had an expensive looking door  and 3 plastic chairs which reminded Eren of his days in his school. He shivered at the thought.

"Would you mind waiting here whilst I quickly sort out my files?" Smith smiled at Eren again in a rather intimidating manner.

"Of course not." Eren illuminated. He closed his eyes for a moment and smiled as wide as he could to intimidate the man back to the best of his abilities. As soon as Smith entered his office, Eren sighed and rolled his eyes. He didn't have his interview yet and he already disliked his potential boss. Then again, was there anyone who genuinely liked their boss?

Eren's trail of thought faded as he heard footsteps down the hallway. They weren't as gallant as Smiths's. Quicker and more agitated. Luckily, it was Levi, and the sight of a familiar face here made him calmer. After seeing Smith though, Eren noticed his attraction towards Levi. The man was very handsome too, but his difference made him more interesting. His tired, bored eyes gave him character and his stoic expression although not as friendly as Smith's never masked his true opinion of the situation which made him a lot easier to be around. Even his short height seemed to be attractive to Eren, simply because it was out of character for him, it was different.

And Eren realised Levi was oddly his type. This made him blush and look at his shoes as he talked to Levi, it made him feel giddy like a high schooler talking to a crush.

"So how are the first impressions?" Levi asked whilst taking a seat on a spare chair after wiping imaginary dust off with his hand.

"To be honest he seems really annoying. Like you know the type of nice mums are whenever they meet someone they know on the street?" Eren almost bit his tongue, why on Earth was he saying all this? He seemed to be able to talk normally before but why did he have to lose his mind right now before the interview?

"What?" Levi chuckled. "I meant his impression, but judging by the things you're saying they can't be great." Eren felt dumb, a sudden wave of heat flushed his cheeks. 

"Look you'll do great." He began, surprising Eren. "Just don't worry about it, Erwin isn't as bad as you think." He ran his hand through Eren's hair as a gesture to calm him down, but instead it made Eren's heart race.

"I have to go finish some reports but I'm free in half an hour, I can wait for you and we can go somewhere to eat afterwards?" 

Eren nodded energetically and smiled "That'd be great."

"Great. See you later and, Eren, good luck." Levi gave him a smile and it burned into Eren's eyes. He now had motivation, no matter how idiotic, to become a forensic scientist at the Maria Police station. He was going to do it to work with Levi.

 

* * *

 

 

The interview has been going on for over half an hour and Eren was still sweating like mad. Erwin questioned him about everything. School, ambitions, goals, until he changed to transport and anything work related. Until he finally sat back down in his chair.

"You know Eren, I must say I prefer you to the other candidates." he began.

"Huh?" Eren lost all his manners at the simple comment, he certainly did not expect Erwin to say this.

Erwin laughed at Eren's response, but it was the first sincere emotion he displayed thus far and you could see it in his deep blue eyes. "Well you seem the most motivated, and so far you don't seem very crazy like some others did..." he paused "Don't get your hopes up, but I think you just got the job"

Eren tried to contain himself, he really did. But instead his waterfall of glee exploded in form of jumping up from the chair  and hugging Erwin. "Thank you this means the world to me!" he sobbed into Erwin's shoulder. Only the confused pat on his back made him realise what he was doing. 

"Erm, sorry commander Smith." he awkwardly pulled away. 

"It's all right Eren. You're dismissed, I'll tell you my final decision at the end of this week. Thank you for showing up at such short notice."

Eren walked out of the office and closed the door behind him. Leaning on it he exhaled all his built up emotions but then smiled to himself because he recognised the steps  walking in his direction.

"So how was it?" Levi asked curiously and Eren replied to him with his biggest smile yet, which wrinkled his nose to make room for it.


End file.
